Why is your Pumpkin Pie so dark?

With the leaves on the trees changing color and beginning to fall, it's safe to say that pumpkin season is in full swing. I personally LOVE pumpkin season! I love pumpkin anything... pumpkin coffee, pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cake, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin cheesecake, triple chocolate pumpkin cheesecake... you get the point. And with the exception of the coffee, I make all of the above from scratch with fresh and fine ingredients.

But this blog post in particular is aboutPumpkin Pie, so let's get back on track. I make a rich, delicious pumpkin pie. But I find that I am sometimes asked why my pumpkin pie is so dark. Until recently I never really gave it much thought or realized that it looked dark to the average person. Ironically though, everyone that questioned the color was also unbelievably pleased with the taste of the pie. They rave about how great it is.

Well, I recently discovered the answer to this question. I have this little warm spot in my heart for Produce Pete, who I occasionally catch on a rare Saturday morning, and he recently did a segment on winter squash. When he got to butternut squash, one of the things he said is that many commercial bakeries actually use butternut squash instead of pumpkin to make pumpkin pie! I was floored! I never ever knew this. Now don't get me wrong, I love butternut squash, and make a killer butternut squash soup, but I'm not going to put it in a pie and tell you it's pumpkin! So, there you have it... my pumpkin pie is so dark because it's made with actual pumpkin! Go figure!

The Following Blog Post was Published on weddingvendorsHV.com

I thought I'd take a moment to share the contribution we made to the Wedding Vendors of the Hudson Valley website. Please visit their site at weddingvendorsHV.com

The best time to start planning your wedding cake is right after your venue is booked and your wedding theme and colors are decided upon.WHO is going to create your delicious work of art? There are two types of places that you can look for when searching for the right Cake Artist for you. One is a bakery. Many bakeries, while their main business is pastries, small cakes, and cookies being sold in the store front, typically also create wonderful wedding and specialty cakes. The other type of business, which is what we here at Cake Devils are, is a Custom Cake Artist. We are a fully licensed and insured, solely custom, made to order cakery. Everything we make is baked fresh, from scratch, in small batches with high quality ingredients, just before you need your order. While we are extremely easy to contact and work with, you can only meet with us in person by appointment. This is because we are a 2 person operation and give every order all the time, love and attention that it needs and deserves. This means, when we are creating your delicious, beautiful, masterpiece of a wedding cake, we won’t be interrupted. Our full focus will be on your cake.The second step to planning ahead is the DESIGN of your cake. If you already have some ideas, then you’re ahead of the game. Tell your cake artist your thoughts. Here atCake Devils we’re great at taking your ideas and turning them into a fabulous cake! If you don’t have any ideas yet, start looking on-line. Create a folder of cakes you like. Do you see a trend? Is there something about all the cakes that you like that is consistent? Email some of these pictures to your cake artist. Let them see what you like!Long gone are the rules of traditional wedding cakes. So, be creative, express yourself. Do you want to incorporate your wedding colors? How about replicating some of the fabric, pearls or jewels on your dress? Do you want your cake to be a color instead of white? Do you like the more traditional all white cake with scrolls and piping? You can do whatever you’d like. Do you like a lot of flowers on your cake or a more minimal approach? Or you can even do a cake like the one seen below, covered in all rosettes.Speaking of flowers, real flowers or sugar flowers? Here at Cake Devils, we highly recommend any type of sugar flower. Real flowers are beautiful; your florist adds so much beauty to your wedding day, however, fresh flowers are not a food product, and may contain things like pesticides or contaminants that can then get on your special cake and then into the mouths of your guest. Sugar flowers are beautiful and edible and come in the form of Buttercream (soft and buttery), Royal Icing (hard and crunchy, like a candy dot), and Sugar Paste (dry like porcelain and are the most realistic of them all, many people think they are real.)THEME cakes are huge. We’re seeing a big trend of GROOMS CAKES hitting our area. Grooms Cakes have been around in the south, but it seems that couples in our area want a theme cake at their wedding now too! What a great way to express a hobby or a love for something with an amazing specialty cake at your wedding to go with your wedding cake! Your wedding cake artist should be able to provide and deliverboth of these cakes for you.One thing more to keep in mind, is that you don’t want too many opinions. Ask only a few of the people closest too you. You’ll notice that here at Cake Devils, we hold tastings for up to 4 people. This is because too many people bring too many opinions. It can make you second guess yourself and your choices. Feel good about the decisions you make in planning your wedding. It’s your day!The very last and most important step after you’ve booked your cake is to love what you’ve decided on and feel great about it! Cake is happy, delicious and beautiful! Trust Cake Devils (or your chosen cake provider) to deliver your Delicious Masterpiece and amazing Grooms Cake on your special day!We hope you've found this information useful! Please feel free to browse our website and contact us with any questions! We're also available for all your cake needs, not just weddings! So keep us in mind for your engagement party, bridal shower and all other parties too!Sweet Regards, Stacy & Ericawww.CakeDevils.com914-861-5666www.Facebook.com/CakeDevils

Does Cake Devils make (insert your need here) cakes?

We're seeing a trend lately when meeting people, especially in networking, that we are being asked if we accommodate dietary restrictions. Mostly gluten free, next most asked for is probably sugar free. So we thought we'd give you all our honest answer to this question that has been arising.

The answer in the most simplest of forms, is yes, we can accommodate dietary restrictions. We can bake you a gluten free cake. We can bake you a sugar free cake and we can bake you a low fat cake. We have baked all of the above, and done so quite well. Cake Devil Erica often accommodates dairy free chocolate cake for a family member. As a side note, I (Cake Devil Stacy) once made a low fat and sugar free pumpkin cake for a friend's mother when I went to her home for dinner one night. The cake was delicious, and I honestly would not have believed that it was sugar free or low fat if I didn't make it myself. So yes, we are very capable.

But, let us ask you this. Do you have this personal need? Someone else at your event? Maybe even 2 people at your event? Maybe even 4? That's it? Just a few?

Great! Here's our plan of action... see the cake above? If you're ordering any type of tiered cake, what we'll do is make the top tier in your dietary need, whether it be gluten free, sugar free, etc, and it will be sinfully delicious minus the gluten, fat or sugar to accommodate the needed restriction. The rest of the cake will be made in full on Cake Devil mode for your guests to indulge and celebrate and with a sinfully delicious Cake Devils cake in it's truest form. Don't have a tiered cake? Talk to us anyway. It's very possible that we can work out just part of the cake to suit your dietary needs anyway!

Getting married and have a dietary restriction? There's an even simpler solution! Cake Devils has been seeing Groom's Cakes as an up and coming trend in the area! Get your wedding cake as a regular Sinfully Delicious Cake Devils Cake and order your Sinfully Delicious Groom's Cake to suit your dietary needs. Groom's cakes are such a great way to express your own personality and have fun with a cake on your wedding day! Many brides even surprise their grooms with them!

Crisp Fall Flavors

The fall is definitely upon us, and the Little Devils have found that we're really in transition mode to those fall flavors!

Now, don't get me wrong, we're still baking up plenty of Chocolately Devil's FoodCake and Sinfully Sweet Vanilla, but those Luscious Lemon cakes and Pina Colada cakes that we were baking over the summer seem to be at rest. Instead we're pumping out some Perfect Pumpkin Cake and Appealing Apple Spice cakes!

The next one up is that Sassy Spice cake, very popular for the holiday season! Don't forget your pumpkin pies and sinfully delicious cheesecakes!Triple chocolate pumpkin is to die for!

Hello friends! We hope you had crisp and delicious September, just as we did. We were busy little Devils this month; jam packed with exciting celebrations and fun events. Of course they were all adorning beautiful and delicious Cake Devil desserts! Unfortunately we had so much going on, we weren't even able to get pictures of everything up on our website and Facebook page (or Twitter or Pinterest either!) to share with you, but we will try to get them up soon. And of course, some of our favorites…

We also had some super fun events of our own to attend. We loved seeing some of your faces at the Street Fair and were so excited to meet those of you who attended the Bridal Expo. Congrats to all you brides to be out there!

We hope you have a fantastic October. Don't forget to inbox us with some of your fall flavor requests. The kitchen's been smelling so delicious and festive lately, and we'd love to make some more of your favorites. We'd also love to hear your Halloween plans...are you doing anything fun? Do you have your costume picked out? Will you be wearing Devil horns perhaps? You know we will!! ;-) Thank you all for your continued support. We can't wait to hear from you. Until next time...we'll be in the kitchen! -- Sweet RegardsStacy & Ericawww.CakeDevils.com914-861-5666